Location : Egyptian Bridge
Saint Petersburg.
The Egyptian bridge was opened in 1826. All structural elements, including the grid of the bridge, were richly decorated in the then-fashionable «Egyptian style», so the bridge got its name. Academician P.P. Sokolov sculpted four sculptures of sphinxes, on whose heads hexagonal lights were fixed. Today, these sphinxes are the only ones that survived from the original decoration of the bridge.
The Egyptian bridge stood for almost 80 years, but on January 20 (February 2), 1905, the unforeseen happened: while passing through the bridge of the Horse-Grenadier Regiment, the bridge collapsed to Fontanka. Three horses became victims of the disaster.
The most diverse versions of this incident are still being put forward. Some experts say that the measured passage of the columns caused a resonance. Others point out possible mistakes made by the designers and builders of the bridge. A popular urban legend says that a certain Maria Ilyinichna Ratner, who lived near the bridge, during the passage of the cavalrymen shouted out the window: “May you fail!”, And her wish was immediately fulfilled. Her act is explained in different ways. Some believe that Maria Ilyinichna was tired of the trumpets and timpani of cavalrymen who woke her every morning, while others claim that Ratner fell victim to the adversary in uniform during her youth. Be that as it may, Maria Ilyinichna entered the city folklore under the name «Mary of Egypt.»
Instead of the collapsed bridge, a temporary wooden bridge was built, which served until the 1950s, when the bridge was recreated in stone again. The new building did not resemble the old, richly decorated bridge, since the restoration of its former appearance was not the goal of the architects who designed the new bridge more modest and light. However, the preserved Egyptian motifs and cast-iron sculptures of the sphinxes made it possible to leave the former name behind the structure.